To more than double IndiaÂ’s port cargo traffic under the Sagarmala programme by 2025, the Ministry of Shipping has prepared a detailed master plan for Major Ports.
The National Democratic Alliance government plans to increase the countryÂ’s port cargo traffic to 2.5 billion tonnes (BT) from 1 BT now.
The Ministry of Shipping had hired AECOM India Pvt Ltd and McKinsey & Co as consultants last year to draft the master plans for the Major Ports.
The governmentÂ’s ambitious Sagarmala programme aims to modernise port infrastructure, reduce logistics costs and create four million new direct jobs and another six million indirect jobs.
The ministry had released the National Perspective Plan of the Sagarmala programme on 14 April 2016. “Major ports have a capacity of about 900 million tonnes (MT) and minor ports have around 700 MT. We have created a master plan of all the major ports and have identified what the total potential of the major ports is, if we were to develop these major ports fully,” said a Ministry of Shipping official.
With a coastline of 7,517 km, India has 12 Major Ports contributing only 1 per cent of gross domestic product. The Sagarmala programme has 150 projects categorised into port modernisation, connectivity, port-led industrialisation and coastal community development.
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